Teaching and learning computer science soft skills using soft skills

Abstract

This paper continues a previous paper [1] in which we described students' gradual understanding of computer science (CS) and software engineering (SE) soft skills. Our study focused on a course we taught on soft skills in CS and SE, offered by the Department of Computer Science at the Technion -Israel Institute of Technology. The course was developed in response to a call by the Israeli hi-tech industry to equip Technion CS graduates with such skills. In [1] we presented the nature of CS soft skills, described the course schedule, including the teaching principles applied in the course, and showed how, in the course of the course, students gradually constructed a mental perception of CS soft skills in a 4-stage process. In this paper, we refine the comprehension process into a 6-rung ladder, based on further data analysis and additional experience gained when teaching the course for a second time. We elaborate on the additional rungs and further illuminate the results of two evaluation surveys on the course that were distributed to the students (in addition to the formal course evaluation administrated by the Technion's Center for the Promotion of Teaching). One of our main conclusions is that the course provides students with the opportunity to express their desire to be more involved in the teaching process of the course and to discuss and analyze their own soft skills. In other words, students realize the importance and significance of learning soft skills by actually implementing these skills in the learning process. In the Summary part of the paper, we present several pedagogical conclusions that are based on this observation and that we intend to implement in the future when teaching this course.

Grading students' programming and soft skills with open badges: A case study

“…Recent empirical research on soft skills in the programming context has been focused on either defining which soft skills are sought by the market (Ahmed, Capretz, & Campbell, ; Matturro, ; Radermacher & Walia, ) or aimed at providing recommendations on how to teach soft skills (Hazzan & Har‐Shai, ; Sheth, Murphy, Ross, & Shasha, ). Very few studies are oriented toward finding influential factors in soft skill attainment or analyzing student perception of soft skills and their importance.…”

“…The rubric was then specialized for the programming context (GRASS D6.2 New Versions of Project Outputs, 2015) and was used in this case study. Matturro, 2013;Radermacher & Walia, 2013) or aimed at providing recommendations on how to teach soft skills (Hazzan & Har-Shai, 2014;Sheth, Murphy, Ross, & Shasha, 2016). Very few studies are oriented toward finding influential factors in soft skill attainment or analyzing student perception of soft skills and their importance.…”

Multinational, Intercultural, Multidisciplinary and Intensive (MIMI) Methodology to Enrich Soft Skills Development in Computer Science Students

“…Nowadays, many active-learning methodologies, such as Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Simonson (2019), Peer Instruction Porter et al (2013), Peer-Led Team Learning Murphy et al (2011), Problem-Based Learning Schmidt et al (2009 and Team-Based Learning Michaelsen et al (2004) are primarily used for the development of soft skills. One can find many project-based elements in curricula, but, in a normal university setting, it is very rare to have a project that is based around multidisciplinary teams, where only some of the members represent computer science and the rest represent non-technical domains Beckingham (2018); Berkling et al (2019); Börstler and Hilburn (2015); Capretz and Ahmed (2010); Devedzic et al (2018); Hazzan and Har-Shai (2014); ; Herrmann and McFarland (2019); Johns-Boast and Flint (2013); Johns-Boast et al (2009); Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE Computer Society (2013); Jones et al (2016); Sukhoo et al (2005); Tomić et al (2017); Walker and Slotterbeck (2002); Nazligul et al (2017); Katarina Pažur and Arbanas (2017); Ibanez et al (2014); Ivanova et al (2019); Pastel et al (2015); Gestwicki and McNely (2016); Frezza et al (2019); Saltz and Heckman (2018); Reardon and Tangney (2015).…”

Interactive three‐dimensional virtual environment to reduce the public speaking anxiety levels of novice software engineers

“…Hence, this situation directly affects the individuals' careers in a negative manner. In order to solve this problem, software engineers, especially novice ones, need to be trained on the social topics starting from their student days since they feel themselves inadequate when making presentations [5]. In this way, the SE students can increase their public speaking abilities, which is one of the most important social skills sought in software engineers, before starting their careers [6].…”